Hello Saeges!
What an eventful couple of months! Where to begin?
August was a month full of lots of work and progress for the development of the game, despite starting slow as we still recovered from our flu which was a bit more complicated than expected. It was followed by a September that took off with some personal issues that took some time to solve, a small break for our own mental health afterwards, and then back to work. Still, despite the obstacles and less than ideal circumstances we managed to make important progress towards Demo 2 and what will become the Early Access, so let's dive into the new things coming to Farmwand!
The great outdoors.
A very important part of the experience we want to create is that sense of awe you get when exploring a brand new place, finding its secrets and uncovering deep lore behind it. An encounter with mysterious creatures, a sighting of wild animals, a gorgeous landscape...there are so many things we want you all to see!
But they require a lot of work, both technical and art-wise. During the past months we've been working on lots of new models for the different places you will visit. From new trees to fill our forests and new kinds of grasses and weeds, mushrooms and rocks to scatter over the land, to new shaders for water bodies and many improvements to our custom renderer to achieve further viewing distances with the same performance.
We've been also improving the way plants react to the motion of both the player and the many critters that populate the world:
And through all the work we are doing with the landscapes (including adding some really needed verticality to the world) there are already some moments of pure wonder to be had!
Working on those creatures
We've also started working on some new creatures for the many locations you will find, as well as their different homes and "lairs". If you are afraid of spiders, this is your last chance to turn back! Tho, these ones are kind of cute...
Improvements to the Farm
And finally, we've been working on a lot of improvements around the farming part of "Farmwand". The AI for the little animals is being developed, we are adding lots of easy to understand popups and icons to know when they need to sleep, eat or when they have something ready to gather...
But also little QoL details around the crops so that you can, for example, know exactly what you planted and where:
But these are only the things we can show. A lot more has been going on behind the scenes. The spells system is coming along nicely, crafting has been fully revamped so that its internal code can be used for cooking, brewing potions and a lot more...
And Lunahweld Town is taking shape as we speak, with some of the nicest looking spots we have for the game. Lots of things to be excited about as development moves on :D